SUNDAY’s other Chantilly feature, the €90,000 Group 2 Darley Prix Robert Papin, cut up disappointingly and was contested by a field of just four runners.

It may have been run over a new distance (six furlongs rather than five and a half) and at a third different venue in three years, but the result was just the same, Ventura Tormenta outbattling his fellow countryman, The Lir Jet, to land a seventh consecutive British triumph.

The winning margin was a short head and it does not look like a vintage renewal. There was only a neck back to the third home, Tiger Tanaka, an Irish-bred Clodovil filly who had been bought for a mere €23,789 after winning a Lyon Parilly claiming race in early June and had since been plying her trade exclusively in the provinces, mainly in claiming company.

The Middleham Park Racing syndicate, which owns the Richard Hannon-trained winner, deserves full marks for enterprise as this was their Acclamation colt’s third start in a 15-day period and he was a supplementary entry just 72 hours before the race once a small field was guaranteed.

Tipperary-bred

Bred in Co Tipperary by the ITV Racing and attheraces.com pundit Kevin Blake, and a £95,000 purchase at Goffs UK Premier Yearling Sales last August, Ventura Tormenta was dropping back in distance having looked a non-stayer over seven furlongs in the Group 2 Superlative Stakes at Newmarket the previous week.

Tim Palin, a director of Middleham Park, explained: “The plan was to try to draw the stamina out of The Lir Jet and Christophe Soumillon has carried it out to perfection.

“It’s very rewarding when a plan like this comes together and, to be fair, the winning line came at the perfect moment, it was on the right stride. Now Christophe wants to ride him again in the Prix Morny (on August 23rd).”

Michael Bell, trainer of The Lir Jet, was understandably downcast at the narrow defeat of his Norfolk Stakes hero, who was sent off the 2/5 favourite.

“Oisin (Murphy) said that he didn’t feel the same horse as at Royal Ascot but with a little more luck we would have won anyway.

“He was in front just before the line and again just after,” he said.

THREE fillies well worth following from the d’Ispahan undercard are the three-year-old Onassis, the four-year-old Dariyma, and Harajuku, a juvenile daughter of the Japanese super-sire Deep Impact.

Trained in England by Charlie Fellowes, Onassis won the €38,000 Listed Prix de Bagatelle (one mile) virtually on the bridle, so great was her superiority, although her jockey, Hayley Turner, had to change course three times in the last quarter mile in order to find a clear passage and was hit with a four-day careless riding ban.

Dariyma landed the €34,000 Listed Prix de la Pepiniere (one mile, two furlongs) by three lengths under a masterful front-running ride from Soumillon. She is not the most robust of individuals but looks like she has enough talent to be capable of ending the career of her retiring trainer, Alain de Royer-Dupré, with a bang.

Trained by Andre Fabré for owner/breeders the Niarchos Family, Harajuku clocked a fast time in making a two-and-a-half-length winning debut in a seven-furlong maiden.

She should not be long in making her mark in much better company.